Maldives says India has withdrawn all its troops ahead of May 10 deadline

India has withdrawn all its troops from the Maldives ahead of the May 10 deadline set by President Mohamed Muizzu, a Maldivian presidential office spokesperson said.

Muizzu, widely seen as a pro-China leader, had set May 10 as the deadline for the withdrawal of the Indian soldiers from his country. Repatriation of some 90 Indian military personnel stationed in the island nation was a key pledge of Muizzu during his presidential campaign last year.

Heena Waleed, the President’s Office chief spokesperson told Sun.mv news portal that the last batch of Indian soldiers stationed in the country had left. However, she did not give the exact number of how many Indian soldiers had been repatriated.

She, however, said that details about the number of soldiers stationed would be disclosed later.

The Indian troops had been stationed in the Maldives to operate and maintain two helicopters and Dornier aircraft India gifted to the island nation earlier.

India and the Maldives had agreed to withdraw the remaining Indian troops before May 10. The Maldives government earlier said there were 89 Indian soldiers stationed in the island nation, citing official documents.

India began withdrawing its personnel with the first batch of 25 soldiers on March 12, at the request of the Mohamed Muizzu government.

Earlier, the Maldives government announced that 51 of these soldiers were repatriated to India on Monday.

The announcement of the withdrawal of all Indian troops from the Maldives came against the backdrop of Maldivian Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer’s visit to India. He met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday and had “extensive discussions” on bilateral relations and regional security issues.

Relations between the two countries were strained after Muizzu insisted on the withdrawal of Indian military personnel operating three military platforms in the island nation.

At a media briefing in Delhi on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the first and the second batches of Indian troops have returned to India and “now a deputation of competent Indian technical personnel has taken place” to operate the three Indian aviation platforms.

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